Cochrane Skating Club figure skaters came home from Sylvan Lake with lots of hardware last weekend (February 9-11).

Seventeen intermediate and senior skaters from the Cochrane area competed in the Central Region STARSkate Invitational, with a number of the skaters receiving podium placements. 

Karen Allison, Coach for the Cochrane Skating Club, says hard work pays off and the skater's excellent results reflect that. "The girls are really committed and at the end of the day they really love it and that keeps them working hard and trying to achieve their goals."

As a coach, Allison was pleased with the results from all the skaters but made special note how many of the gold medal winners really pushed themselves. "I think all our girls who had podium finishes should feel really proud. Our gold freeskater, Sydney Perron, this was her first competition of the season as she is in grade 12 so her focus has been on working really hard academically. It was great to see her go out and have such a strong skate and finish at the top."

Evelyn Archibald, also impressed Allison as she just moved up into that category and Taylor Kaarto wowed the judges and crowd with her interpretative event despite it being a brand new program.

Skaters in the Skate Canada STAR 1 through STAR 3 events are awarded a rank of Merit, Bronze, Silver and Gold for the various elements in which they are required to know at each of their levels, they are then awarded an overall result as an aggregate of their skills or performance.  Following are the results of the STAR 1 through STAR 3 skaters:

STAR 2:

  • Emesheh Flikkema - Silver
  • Danika Jones – Silver
  • Claire Moore – Bronze
  • Angelina Noseworthy - Merit

STAR 3:

  • Ellie Allison - Bronze
  • Makenzie Cann – Bronze
  • Vienna Flikkema – Silver
  • Isabel Scheepstra - Silver

Once the competitors reach STAR 4 and higher they are ranked against other competitors in their levels, those skaters results are below.

STAR 4 and Higher:

  • Alexis Brassington – STAR 4 Under 13 – 6th place
  • Kaitlyn Eiserman  - STAR 4 Under 10  – 6th place
  • Lauren Rowsell – STAR 4 Under 13 – 7th place
  • Evelyn Archibald – STAR 5 Under 13  - 1st place (gold medal)
  • Abigail Cabot – STAR 5 13 and Over – 4th place
  • Ainsley Prokopow – STAR 5 13 and Over – 3rd place (bronze medal)
  • Taylor Kaarto – STAR 6 – 3rd place (bronze medal)
  • Evelyn Archibald – Introductory Interpretive – Silver
  • Alexis Brassington – Introductory Interpretive – Silver
  • Taylor Kaarto – Bronze Interpretive – 1st place (gold medal)
  • Abigail Cabot – Bronze Interpretive – 5th place
  • Mairyn Dumanowski – STAR 9 Short Program – 2nd place (silver medal)
  • Mairyn Dumanowski – STAR 10  - 6th place
  • Sydney Perron – Gold Freeskate – 1st place (gold medal)

Next up for the Cochrane Skating Club will be the weekend of March 9-11 in Calgary at the Calgary Winter Invitational for the higher up intermediate and senior skaters.